Through our collective unconsciousness, we live most of our lives expecting to get to a ‘better end’. In many traditions, we are conditioned to believe that all we live for is a good place in heaven. In other traditions, there’s an expectation that paradise or nirvana awaits at the end of life. This belief propels us, rendering the journey itself slightly inconsequential, our sights set solely on the ever moving horizon. Yet, ironically, this coveted finale remains ever elusive, akin to a carrot dangled perpetually just beyond our grasp. As we hasten our pace, the carrot recedes with equal haste, a mirage on the path of life. Yet this unconsciousness and the stress that this journey incurs on our backs has not allowed us to sit back and relax while examining the error in our expectations.

The vivid memories of my junior high school days are still fresh, a time when I immersed myself in studies with a singular aim: to ascend to senior high. Upon reaching that milestone, my focus shifted, now entirely riveted on securing a place in a prestigious college. College years were no different, dominated by the pursuit of exemplary grades, a prerequisite for a promising career. Once embarked on that career, the narrative evolved yet again, this time the dream was to own a home, to lay the foundations for a family, and to meticulously plan for the tranquil days of retirement. However, it wasn’t until life presented me with a series of sobering revelations that I recognized the gap. I was like the proverbial donkey, tirelessly chasing after carrots — carrots that, in reality, were nothing but the figments of expectations, tantalizingly suspended from a stick affixed firmly to my own head, a poignant metaphor for a mind ensnared by its own conditioned thoughts.

When the mind recedes into itself, it becomes crystal clear that all there ever is is this very moment. Nowhere to go! Existence crystallizes into the singularity of the present, a timeless ‘eternal now’ far removed from the notion of a journey towards a destined endpoint. In this state, life unfolds as the pure, unadulterated ‘experience of experiencing’, a state too intricate and profound to be encapsulated by the simplistic notion of ‘being human’. Even this description betrays a profound ignorance. There exists no distinct ‘human experience’, no ‘reptilian experience’, just the universal phenomenon of experience itself. An experience that’s colored by sights, sounds, tasting, feeling and sensing. The moment the label-maker called the mind drops, one finds that experiencing is nothing short of mystery. Colors are no longer colors. They are a display of unexplainable fireworks. Hearing is no longer hearing. It’s a vibration of random patterns. Tasting could be almost as vibratory as hearing. The sense of touch, wondrous.

But the mind!
The energetic system called the mind is conceptually where we witness thoughts. Thoughts are designed(if there were even any designer) to be narrative. Narration can only be about what was previously witnessed. Therefore thoughts narrate only what they have seen or heard. Our thoughts then hijack what is witnessed by sight, touch, taste, smell and feeling only to give it labels, narrating how safe or unsafe the experience is. Thought says this is good and that is bad. It says this is nice and that is not as nice. And so consciousness latches on to these labels and gives it life. And so when experience something, thoughts jump on to the experience and narrate how difficult it is. Consciousness, in all its power latches onto the narration and brings this difficulty to life. And so the mind finally places a seal on the experience: it was a bad experience. Same happens for the other side of this duality. Even good experiences are labeled this way by the mind.

Often times we need to see behind the curtain to see how these experiences are happening or rather what these experiences are made of. Where does seeing occur? Where do thoughts come from? Where is the experience of smell? The finer and more in-depth one gets with these explorations the clearer it is to see that all of life is just the experiencing of life for nobody, to nobody. Energy, in all its infinite dimensions, being conscious of itself. Losing itself to find itself. Finding itself to lose itself.

It’s a glorious dance!

There are three paradoxes to explore here. We start with the first: the seemingly flawed relationship with our minds is, paradoxically, beneficial. Throughout life, we often conflate our identities with our thoughts, assuming the existence of a distinct thinker behind them. This deep-seated misconception requires significant unlearning to understand its absurdity.
However, as we delve into deeper inner exploration, we uncover the other side of this paradox: our misidentification with our thoughts and bodies was necessary. It set us on a path to appreciate the broader perspective, the ‘big picture.’

This leads us now to the second paradox: the nonexistence of the ‘big picture.’ here is no big picture! There just is the getting lost in our stories and being found in the true essence of who we really are.

In recognizing this truth, we see the futility of clinging to our narratives, maintaining rigid stances, and attempting to control life- any part of it. These actions only serve to distance us from the inherent happiness available in the present moment. Imagine the possibility of simply trusting in our well-being, without feeling compelled to actively maintain it. What if we could just trust that we are okay without the need to do anything about being okay. While this may initially seem like a nonchalant approach to life, it introduces the third paradox.

This paradox reveals that in truly letting go, life guides us on an extraordinary journey. Although this path may not be adorned with vivid colors and confetti, it opens our eyes to the intricacies behind life’s stage – the creation of the set, the orchestration of the performance, our roles in this grand play, and the ultimate realization of its ‘unseriousness’.

It’s this unseriousness that we can then take seriously! It’s all play!

What is obvious, however, is that this type of mental activity does not yield any results apart from the multiplication of its narrative. Somehow, the ego believes that through the multiplicity of these activities and narratives, solutions emerge. But we can use the tool of mind-memory to find out that worry and anxiety just does not work. They don’t yield anything. It could be argued that some solution in the past worked when you spent time worrying about it. Could it be that you would have found solution without worrying or could it be that something much better would have happened if you were more relaxed. Or could you have seen that sometimes solutions to our problems emerge out of themselves? Learning to let go allows us to see the latter clearly!

Letting go, allowing things to happen just the way they will, seems at first insane. It’s unintuitive and goes against the grain of societal indoctrination. However when seen through, it feels incredibly obvious what’s at play in the grander scheme of perceived things.
The mind says ‘this should not have happened to me’. It says, ‘why is this happening to me’, ‘what can I do to solve this in a way that should never have been in the first place’. It goes into a future narration of ‘this terrible thing is likely going to happen to me so how do I stop it’. Every single chit chat, every single thought pointing to an imagined self- a ‘me’.

What if we could examine this grander scheme by resting — by letting go. Letting go of a need to change anything. Letting go of a need to fix anything. Letting go of the mental movie of what could happen and what should not have happened. A sinking into the immediate senses — seeing that the individual is present within a very colorful or colorless present experience that has almost nothing to do with the mental chatter. Hearing all that’s perceptible to the sense of hearing, tasting what’s being ignored in the mouth and diving into the visceral awareness of what’s happening in the body. These are more real than what’s happening in imagination. These are more real than the siren call to jump into the waters and head space of endless suffering. The present is more real than the past. It’s more real than the future. And the present isn’t even here any more.

In letting go, we can begin to wake up to this grander scheme where life happens as it is meant to whether you meddle with it or not. You see that all has been well right from the beginning. Letting go reveals that the rope you clung to wasn’t preventing a fall; you were always on solid ground all along and the tight grip you had on that rope is what causes your fists to ache in the first place. This obviously sounds like roses, unicorns and butterflies and I am not implying that these words should be taken hook, line and sinker. That would in fact amount to yet another holding on to instead of letting go. Ah! What a paradox.
What I’m suggesting here is to conduct an experiment. To investigate for yourself what it is like to let go of the mental assertion that life has to be a certain way for this ‘person’. When your kite begins to sail effortlessly in the wind, when the bike of ‘you’ begins to cruise without any pedaling, examine to find out how true or false these words are.

There’s a grace that bleeds through and totally takes control of all of existence even in the midst of pain and suffering. We don’t see it when we get lost in our projected thoughts, taking the thoughts for reality and reality for nothingness. There’s a peace that transcends the understanding of the mind when we rest, rest knowing and trusting that the right actions will be awakened by itself, through you, through life, through seeming others.

There’s a love that transcends our attachment to thoughts(in all its anxieties), it sees those thoughts but sees them as a passing stream, not rejecting them but loving them tenderly. For thoughts, all of our thoughts, are just a beautiful kaleidoscope of playful existence. They are neither real nor unreal, powerful yet so powerless. They are impermanent yet they seem to be persistent.

Letting go of them allows these thoughts to find their rightful home in the nothingness of all things!

So let me start by saying this: In the last 4 years, I have been consistent and dogmatic with the use of my iPad to journal. As a matter of fact, I use the Bullet Journal method(BuJo) which I have done so consistently to the point that I have created a free downloadable bullet journal template which I share every year, made available here on my Medium.

You see, journaling is clearly one of the best ways to access and map your subconscious mind. Not only that, but through journaling, we are able to store information in ways that help us access the time, day, and mental space we were in that given time in space.

I started using an iPad to BuJo about 5 years ago mainly because I wanted the content of my thoughts written down to be as clear and open without the concern for prying eyes or the fear of losing the journal.

When the Apple Pencil launched, I thought it was a great idea to make the transition and document my thoughts on my iPad with my own writing. I didn’t have to worry about buying yet another pretty book that may get lost. I didn’t have to worry about mistakes- I could just erase them. I didn’t have to worry about extra journals. I could just click to add a different journal within whichever book app I was using. Over the years I used GoodNotes, I used NoteShelf. I tried to figure out which was best for journaling digitally and came to my own conclusions. Using the PaperTouch screen protector on my iPad, I explored the sense — the touch and feel of paper. It felt good to be able to translate paper to pixel. And yes, I did this for 5 years. And I enjoyed it!

One thing was missing! A BOOK! You see, we are so heavily programmed. I am heavily programmed! I love books. I have hundreds upon hundreds of books. I love to read physical books, I love to see those books in their individuality- their different colors, their thickness, their finish. I love to flip through the pages. I love to smell them. I love the cover art. I love the ripped pages, the coffee stains, and the underlined phrases, and sentences! Those are things that make books enjoyable! The ‘tactilism’ of it all!

The one habit I engage in more than any other is meditation and journaling. To think that I can’t enjoy the same engagement of my senses- with that one habit that means more to me than most other habits… Now, that doesn’t sit right with me.

I recently bought the amazing book by Hannah Hinchman, A Life In Hand. Reading through it I realized one other aspect of journaling I had been missing out on was the ability to sketchnote my thoughts and sketch(in pen and pencil drawing) my day in its rawest form and so…

I took the plunge!

I got a Leuchtturm1917! I chose a color I hated to defy my previous resolve. And I am ready to take my journaling offline.

To retort the words of Normal Ohler, “When I write by hand, I produce different sorts of sentences than when I’m on the computer. I’d say they tend to be better ones.”

So how about my concerns about privacy and loss?

You see, in the last year or so, I have had a totally different outtake on life, and of myself! I have slowly and surely realized the world of illusion in which we live and perform. There’s nothing private to me that’s not also private to the other. So privacy is an illusion. There’s no one I am trying to be private with. In fact, I don’t care if a total stranger reads about an embarrassing situation that happened in my life! Wouldn’t that even make for great dinner-time gossip? Ah, that goes to the second concern I had: what if my journal gets lost?

We never lose anything. All of this world is mine! At the same time, none of this world is mine either. I am not attached to anything! Well, maybe with the exception of my dog, Milo.

The whole of our experience in this world is pure play! Pure play! There’s no right way to do anything. There’s no wrong way to do anything. There just is!
So I am going to enjoy writing in a book. And when/if it is time for me to move to a digital medium or to some other type of medium, I will.

— PS:

A part of the physical journal exploration that I am looking forward to is using paper cutouts and printed photos in my journal workflow. I got the HP Sprocket pocket printer to print photos on-actual-demand that I can stick in my day entries.

We agreed to meet up at the Jacksonville Beach to talk. But I had instructed her not to eat anything that morning because I had a surprise. I couldn’t divulge the surprise but it was supposed to be mind-blowing. Only it would be ruined if she took anything apart from water, coffee or tea. Little did she know that all of these were a part of the entire setup to examine the nature of the condition she was facing.

If you’ve ever been to Jacksonville Beach around mid-day, mid-winter, you would easily affirm that the beach is only crowded by avocets, sandpipers and sometimes shorebirds. Less human traffic and enough space to be slightly goofy.

“What’s this surprise you said you were going to show me because I’m so hungry”, Lynne asked.

I was quite not expecting the question just yet. I thought I was going to have had ‘the talk’ with her before telling her what this surprise was. But straight to business, it would seem.

The Reticular Activating System and the anticipation neurotransmitter

“Lynne”, I said quite abruptly meaning to be stern, “do you know why going to the beach is so relaxing?”

“It’s quite and peaceful”, she replied with a hint of uncertainty in her voice.
I was quite hoping she wouldn’t immediately conclude that I only asked for her to come to the beach to give a bullshit talk about how peaceful the beach was. But I was going to explain the neurochemical of why our conversation about depression was best had at the beach.

“You see, Lynne, when primates were built with these really complex eyes that helped them focus and lockdown on a target. That way, everything else wouldn’t matter until the goal is achieved. Look for instance at the lion, if it saw a prey, it would focus so intently its pupils are constricted. It no longer sees its surroundings or aware of it. It has to nail that deer down.

To support that, the amygdala becomes active. Acetylcholine and norepinephrine get secreted. These tense the muscles and prepare the animal for a chase. And then…”

I noticed she was looking at me with a question mark bubble floating over her head.

“The spelling of Acetylcholine?”

“No! I am not a lion”, she replied.

With a loud laugh I acknowledged that I could get very meta sometimes. So I promised to cut to the chase(with the pun intended this time).

“You see, Lynne, when these neurotransmitters get released somehow we enter this stress response. We feel uneasy. We feel stressed. What can cut this circuit is if we can get our pupils to dilate by looking into the far distance.
“Look over there”, I pointed to the really ship that looked so tiny in the horizon.
“This is the first time I am seeing a ship on this beach. So, Lynne, how do you feel?”.

“A little better, I guess”.

“Well, I don’t expect you to feel like a million bucks just yet. I just want you to understand a few things that may be happening to you internally. When we look into the horizon, we cut the attention and vigilance centers. Suddenly, your body forgets it’s supposed to chase something. Instead it feels one with everything. You get lost in the vastness of everything. Suddenly, you feel small and then you slowly but surely begin to feel centered. Now, that works for a quick fix! But this fix lasts a couple of minutes before you spiral. But you can make this part of your daily routine! You can call it a ‘look-into-the-vastness-of-space routine’ or whatever. But you want to practice doing that every day. Take a walk and when you walk, don’t look into your phone. Just look around you with a relaxed gaze. Also, did you know that the consistent ebbing and flowing you hear of the beach waves, they de-stimulate your brain and activate your parasympathetic nervous system, allowing us to relax.

I stopped to read her mind. I was beginning to wonder if I was in any way getting it. I could see her eyes begin to light up, at the same time she seemed a little relaxed. I was watching out for her breathing too. Something I learned during my training as a Neurolinguistic Programming practitioner. She seemed to be taking mental notes.

We, the mind, or the body

“Lynne, I want to tell you something I wish I knew earlier. Something I wish we were taught in school but before I do, I want to say this…taking walks like we are doing right now helps you to relax a tiny little bit because while you take the walks you begin to notice things…the trash at the side of the road, the little doggy that’s togging on its walker’s hands, the construction worker right there calling out to Sammie, the other construction worker.”

At this point, a small wave hit our feet as we move further away from the shorelines.

“Sometimes, I actually like taking walks. I don’t do it as often as I should but I like walks…”

I interrupted quickly, “so if you know you like taking walks why don’t you do more of what you like?” I myself was interrupted by a young boy on a beach bike who almost ran into me. I gave him a gentle nod as he rode off.

“Have you ever noticed the thoughts running through your head? Those thoughts that say ‘you’re doing it all wrong’ or ‘you look fat’ or ‘i am so bored’”

“You mean the one that’s asking why Seye said to come here without eating?”, she added while we both laughed.

“We will get something really good to eat but I will just say this real quick”. I stopped walking and waited till she noticed and faced me. “Who notices those thoughts?

“Me, I guess”, Lynne replied.

“You guess? There’s something that notices that thought. There’s something that notices the constant probing of your state. The thing that nags you about how you feel. The thing that tells you how everything sucks. What’s the thing that notices those thoughts?

“Hmnnnn…I don’t know. I never thought about it. My mind? No?”

“Well, so who notices your mind? I mean, don’t you say ‘my mind’? YOUR mind. So who owns the mind?”

“Me?”, Lynne responded a little bit confused.

“Okay, so who is ‘you’”, I replied.

“Seye, I don’t know!”. At this point, it looked like I was causing more damage rather than helping repair anything. I could see the tears welling in her eyes.

I knew to interrupt the emotions temporarily. “Did you know the bills of sandpipers are capable of cranial kinesis”?

“Seye, what the fuck is sandpipers or cranial kinesis?”

Interrupt succeeded. I ignored the question and continued to my previous point.

“You see, Lynne, whenever we realize there’s a separation between what we perceive to be our mind and the body, we are able to see clearly. Think about that! If you refer to it as ‘your mind’, you cannot be the mind. If you say ‘my body’, you cannot be the body. So therefore, it is easy to say you’re not the mind or the body. If you lose a leg, you don’t say I am removed. You just say my leg is off. If you burned your tongue, you don’t say I am burned. You say ‘my tongue is burned’. The rather weird thing we do with our minds is we often identify with the mind. We say ‘I am sad’ or ‘I am depressed’ rather than ‘I feel sad’ or ‘I feel depressed’. When we see the clear distance between us and how we feel, we are able to apply a little bit of rationality into how we decide to proceed. So tell me, Lynne, how do you feel?’

“I don’t know, really, Seye. I don’t know why I am here. Nothing works. I don’t feel anything. I feel like shit. I am not happy. I just wish things would change. I am ughhhhh”.

“That’s a lot of things you feel and don’t feel, don’t you think?”

Lynne ignored my question and seemed to be probing inwardly. I embraced the silence, getting my phone out to take a picture of something that looked picturesque. I attempted to get her to listen to my voice

“You know I have a friend, Janeé. She literally picked up all the shells here in Jacksonville for export to Denver”

“Lynne, did you notice there was a little bit of excitement when I told you not to eat before coming?

Achievement of tiny goals

“Yes, a little bit. Why?”

We walked toward Dockside Seafood. I had already placed an order so we picked up our food, sat out on the patio. We both didn’t have our masks so it just made sense to be outside.

“I don’t mean to go all technical on you again, but you’d love this. Ever heard of dopamine? It’s the rewards neurotransmitter we get when we achieve something. These days people talk about dopamine when they talk about picking up your phone and scrolling through Instagram. I will say this without going too deep into the biochemistry of this, dopamine is released when you have a goal and you are slowing tending toward the goal. You feel good not because you have achieved the goal, but because you are heading in the direction of that goal. So when I told you not to eat, there was an anticipation! That’s already setting the stage for dopamine! When we ordered the food, that was some release of dopamine. This discussion is also helping you to release tiny bits of dopamine as we head toward a conclusion.

“Also, fasting…intermittent fasting will stimulate the release of norepinephrine which will slightly increase the release of dopamine. That way you begin to feel good. And that’s pure, validated science.

“I would really recommend you set out goals for yourself. They can start really small. Lay your bed every morning… take a walk at 8.30am every morning… check up on your sister. Whatever you do, create a goal and achieve those goals. It would give you a sense of fulfillment. Not only that, it would increase your confidence around these new states you want to generate. At the same time, the pushing of yourself towards an ideal creates a sense of happiness. That’s where the dopamine hides”.

A summary

I ate my Mayport Shrimp spilling some of the sauce on my sleeve while she wrapped up on the something something dockside cheese something something she ordered. I had promised to talk with her and give her a few things for her to do that would guarantee that she would find herself in a better place in a week. We talked about all of them

• Make it a point to come out in the morning. Spend a few minutes just gazing into the horizon, eyes relaxed
• Add to that a small goal. Make sure you are specific about that goal. It could be laying your bed, watering your plants ever morning. Whatever it is, make it clear and go for them every single day.
• Exercise your attention. Spend time meditating. The time you spend meditating gives you the opportunity to see the distance between who you are and your mind.
• Find ways to be here, now. With your walks or whatever, take time to exercise. It is not just the exercise that makes you feel better. It’s the movement. It’s not just even the movement, it is the fact that you are constantly being brought to the present through those exercises. That’s why yoga, stretches, pilates etc they really do help your mind.
• Music! That’s a good tool! You want to listen to music that uplifts you. Of course you have to be intentional about this! The moment you realize it’s putting you in that spiral, get something else to listen to. My suggestion would be something with binaural sounds. They have no lyrics or immediate emotional pull but they affect brain frequency by pacing and leading the waves in your brain.

Before we headed our separate ways, I talked to her about how easy it was for me to talk about all the things she could do, like I was some master of happy states. I mentioned how not every day is a happy day for me. But my aim was to make the sad days less frequent and I was doing a good job of it.

I introduced her to the concept of playbooks. I keep a ‘playbook’ within my journal. There I write things that helped me to feel better. Whenever my mind played its trick on me and I started feeling ‘down’ I would refer to my playbook. It has a record of what I did the last time to get me out. Sometimes they don’t work. When I find what worked better, I journaled that, updating my playbook. One that has worked recently was taking a shower at the early stages of feeling funky. I noted in my journal, ‘it seems that the mindful awareness placed on the water droplets as it washes off my body brings me to center and I’m able to mindfully get myself out of the funk’.

“Lynne”, I said, “I want you to rest assured that our biggest struggles are present only as illusions of the mind. It’s really hard to see it that way. But each day we choose to live, we honor our bodies and we show our minds how strong we are. But we are not the mind. We transcend the mind. We transcend the body. We transcend all things. We only need to spend time resting and observing the mind, in order to see this simple but powerful truth.

We said our goodbyes as I promised to check in on her from time to time. It has been interesting seeing how this ~ 60-minute conversation created interesting seeds over the last three months since the meeting.

If you’ve followed my page long enough, you’d know that every year I publish here on Medium, a free Bullet Journal template that I use for myself. If this is you are here randomly, please find a link below to download my 2022 Bullet Journal template prepared for GoodNotes 5.

I want to recap here why I use a digital bullet journal! First of all, I can keep it pretty private. Secondly, I can export my previous year’s journal entry to Google Drive or another archiving platform for reference in 2044.

You can read my other reasons from this post.

In last year’s post, I mentioned why I switched to GoodNotes for bullet journaling:

• It’s easier to customize writing pressure. It’s easier for me to write in calligraphy on GoodNotes
• GoodNotes gives better flexibility with editing imported images. Cropping is so much easier. This especially comes in handy when you’re scrapbooking
• GoodNotes allows for tabs. I can switch between two notebooks easily.
• I find it does a better job of backing up my notebooks to Google Drive. Noteshelf was a little more manual(even though it says in the options ‘automatic upload’).

This year’s Bullet Journal features:

• Dated monthly logs (January — December)
• Morning routine collection
• Evening routine collection
• Small dotted page template
• Future logs

Click here to download

When we drop all the labels of right versus wrong, black versus white, vaxers versus anti-vaxers, gay versus cis, socialism versus capitalism, Christians versus non-christian, Fox versus CNN; when we drop all the man-made labels that give us this false(many times) sense of safety, certainty, then and only then will we clearly see that we all need some compassion. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the way to get past yet another construct called ‘compassion versus non-compassion’ is to actually lend a hand to those around us starting with us.

For x sakes! We are too busy trying to play identity politics games! We are too busy trying to trend! We are too busy trying to get more likes and follows! We are too busy trying to win! We forget that all of those don’t matter but US!

Have some damn compassion! Gosh! was originally published in The Seye Kuyinu Journal on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

You need another type of stomach to comprehend the fact that you can be born of God.

You need another type of stomach to understand that those who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. How?

That the Kingdom of God is not up above but within you!

That all things are possible to those who believe. Does ‘all’ not mean everything with the exception of nothing?

It’s that time of the year where I update my Bullet Journal to reflect days and dates relevant to the year. This time around, I am moving from the NoteShelf app to GoodNotes 5.

I have used a digital Bullet Journal for about 3 years now(I write about why I switched to digital here) and have created one for free here because I think it’s more convenient bullet journaling through an iPad than a book. However, I have found GoodNotes to be relatively better than Noteshelf because of the following reasons:

• It’s easier to customize writing pressure. It’s easier for me to write in calligraphy on GoodNotes
• GoodNotes gives better flexibility with editing imported images. Cropping is so much easier. This especially comes in handy when you’re scrapbooking
• GoodNotes allows for tabs. I can switch between two notebooks easily.
• I find it does a better job of backing up my notebooks to Google Drive. Noteshelf was a little more manual(even though it says in the options ‘automatic upload’).

Well, if you’re interested in downloading the 2021 Digital Bullet Journal template for GoodNotes 5 click here to download for free- as usual.

Thanks to Ayat Ali for the GoodNotes request.

BulletJournal 2021 Digital Edition 2 was originally published in The Seye Kuyinu Journal on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A CSS pseudo-class is a keyword added to a selector that specifies a special state of the selected element(s). For example, :hover can be used to change a button’s color when the user’s pointer hovers over it.

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Other pseudo-elements and pseudo-class selectors, :not() can be chained with other pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements. For example, the following will add a “New!” word to list items that do not have a .old class name, using the ::after

Trivia & Notes

The :not() selector is chainable with more :not() selectors. For example, the following will match all articles except the one with an ID #featured, and then will filter out the articles with a class name .tutorial:

article:not(#featured):not(.tutorial) {
    /* style the articles that match */
}

Just like other pseudo-elements and pseudo-class selectors, :not() can be chained with other pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements. For example, the following will add a “New!” word to list items that do not have a .old class name, using the ::after pseudo-element:

li:not(.old)::after {
    content: "New!";
    color: deepPink;
}

You can see a live demo in the Live Demo section below.

On the Specificity of Selectors

The specificity of the :not() pseudo-class is the specificity of its argument. The :not() pseudo-class does not add to the selector specificity, unlike other pseudo-classes.

The simple selector that :not() takes as an argument can be any of the following:

• Type selector (e.g p, span, etc.)
• Class selector (e.g .element, .sidebar, etc.)
• ID selector (e.g #header)
• Pseudo-class selector (e.g :first-child, :last-of-type)

Reference

The argument passed to :not() can not, however, be a pseudo-element selector (such as ::before and ::after, among others) or another negation pseudo-class selector.

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Useful Fallbacks

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Just like other pseudo-elements and pseudo-class selectors, :not() can be chained with other pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements. For example, the following will add a “New!” word to list items that do not have a .old class name, using the ::after pseudo-element:

element:not(.old)::after {
    content: "New!";
    color: deepPink;
}   

You can see a live demo in the Live Demo section below.